In search of wellness. Body. Mind. Soul.

OMG Easy Raw Chocolate Chia Pudding

If you don’t know about chia seeds by now, this is a terrific first recipe to try. And, a great kid pleaser. Who says you can’t have chocolate pudding for breakfast?

Chia seeds were a staple food of the Mayans and Aztecs starting about 3,500 BC. So, they’ve been around for a while. They are a true superfood. What that means is that they have an extreme nutritional profile in comparison to their caloric content and size.

Chia seeds are high in omega-3 fatty acids (more than salmon!), antioxidants, calcium, fiber and protein. And, the cool thing about them is that when you mix them with liquid they absorb about 10x their weight turning them into a thick gel. Perfect for puddings and jams (I’ll post the easiest jam recipe in the world another time), and perfect for feeling full when you are trying to lose weight.

Also in this chocolately recipe is raw cacao, another amazing superfood. Cacao is raw unprocessed cocoa (yes, just reverse the vowels). Whereas cocoa is practically nutritionally void as a result of processing, cacao is packed with antioxidants and magnesium.

It also contains phenylethylamine, anandamide, tryptophan and serotonin, all of which contribute to an elevated mood or sense of well-being. What could be better than that?

“With cacao there is fantastic hope for chocoholics everywhere! You can turn cravings for cooked processed chocolate into super nutrition with raw chocolate.” – David Wolfe in Superfoods

Put everything but the chia seeds in a blender and whirl until smooth and creamy. Beware at this point… if you taste this stuff you might be tempted to drink it all down.

It is that good.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a bowl and sprinkle in the chia seeds. Whisk well and leave to sit. Whisk every ten minutes or so for about half an hour. You will notice your pudding thickening each time you stir. When it is fairly thick put it in the refrigerator to finish. It should be completely done by the time it’s chilled.

Now, don’t eat the whole recipe at once. It’s filling, and a little goes a long way. Yum!

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Red Pepper Hummus

"Chickpeas are a kind of bean that probably evolved in West Asia, in what is now eastern Turkey, around the same time as other flowering plants, about 100 million years ago.

Chickpeas have lots of protein and fiber, so they fill you up, and they are very easy to dry and store for a long time, plus they are delicious, so people probably started munching quantities of chickpeas as soon as they reached West Asia, about 50,000 BC." (historyforkids.org)

About anandamide in raw cacao...
"Anandamide is a cannabinoid endorphin that the human body produces after exercise. Anandamide has only been found in one plant - cacao. Anandamide is known as the 'bliss chemical' because it is released while we are feeling great. Cocao contains enzyme inhibitors that decease our bodies' ability to breakdown anandamide. This means that when we eat cacao natural and/or cacao anandamide tend to stick around longer, making us feel good longer."
David Wolfe, "Superfoods"

When you go to the grocery store, you find that the cheapest calories are the ones that are going to make you the fattest - the added sugars and fats in processed foods. - Michael Pollan

"People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
- FM Alexander

Cooking is the worst "health" practice that humans have ever adopted. It destroys not only the enzymes but deranges and destroys almost all known food factors. Cooking disorganizes, oxidizes and makes nonusable a food's mineral content. It deaminates [removes aminos from] the food's protein content, thus rendering it worthless to human nutrition. Cooking reduces the value of a food from its wholesome state all the way down to worthless ashes, depending on the degree of cooking to which it has been subjected"
- Dr. Douglas Graham, The 80/10/10 Diet

Grocery Shopping

"Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames" - Rumi

Photo: Cameron Brown, Toronto

“How do you build up your bank account? By putting something in it everyday.Your health account is no different. What I do today, I am wearing tomorrow. If I put inferior foods in my body today, I’m going to be inferior tomorrow, it’s that simple.”
- Jack Lalanne, fitness icon and juicing pioneer

People often think the brain is resting when they sleep, but it is actually more active at night than during the rest of the day. During sleep, your cardiovascular system and brain are doing a lot of work when it comes to creativity, critical thinking and memory. For example, short-term memories get registered and stored in the brain during sleep.

There's a physical change in the brain that happens only as a product of adequate sleep.

- Jim Maas, author of Sleep for Success: Everything You Must Know About Sleep, But Are Too Tired to Ask